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He’s billed as first male face of Chanel No. 5 — and he’s mumbling some things about the end of journeys and the world turning. But it doesn’t matter — it’s Brad Pitt.Take a look.

The actor is the latest successor to such famous faces as Marilyn Monroe, Catherine Deneuve, Lauren Hutton, Nicole Kidman and Audrey Tautou, according to the Chanel press release.

The ad is directed by Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright, who also helmed the forthcoming adaptation of Anna Karenina. “My favorite moment was the wide shot getting closer and closer and ending up on Brad. He’s a beautiful human being and a proper actor who knows how to deliver lines,” Wright says in the Chanel release.

And that is undeniably true — because it’s hard to figure out what Pitt is saying. His vaguely existential monologue (“Every journey ends, but we go on. The world turns and we turn with it.”) sounds like it could plausibly have been discarded narration from the trailer for Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. That comparison was also noted by BuzzFeed’s Copyranter, who said it looked like the actor was “performing a screen test” for a Malick film. “Inevitable,” Pitt says in the ad’s kicker.

The ad, of course, is already garnering attention for being nonsensical. And while Pitt’s appearance has been described as “smoldering,” it’s also taking itself seriously to the point of parody. It reminds of the time that Pitt posed for a luxurious W magazine cover shoot this past February, seeming to be lost in thought–and comically holding a box of Nabisco saltine crackers.